Two | Arrival

Chapter Two for "Before The Lobotomy." And there's a song that automatically stars playing. Please listen to that while reading.

Two

Gavin was in the back seat of his mom's Trailblazer. The week before, later that day that Gavin had almost gotten hit by the car, his parents had made the call to get him admitted to a hospital with specialties in depressed and suicidal teens and kids. It was also a psych ward.
     During the course of the week, Gavin had grown more depressed and had punched the mirror again. He was angry every time he saw his reflection. He had the dream every night, with Charlotte telling him to jump off of that cliff and into the raging sea below. Gavin had stopped eating. He had stopped talking. He stayed home from school that week, not wanting to face Charlotte or have to explain to anyone who asked what happened to his hand or what had happened to him. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he hadn't slept in days.
     His parents were sitting in front, his father driving. No one spoke a word. The radio wasn't even on.
     Gavin was listening to his iPod. He glanced at the time. Almost eleven thirty in the morning. He sighed. His suitcase was in the front with his mother.
     "We're here," Harold said, driving into the almost empty parking lot of the hospital.
     Gavin sighed, turning off his iPod and wrapping his SkullCandies around it. Harold parked the car and turned off the ignition. The family of three sat there a moment, taking in the reality of the situation. Gavin would be admitted in the hospital and stay there for as long as he needed. His parents figured it would be months.
     "You ready, Gav?" Cheryl asked, turning in her seat to look at Gavin in the back. He just shrugged, unbuckling his seat belt. Cheryl and Harold exchanged glances and unbuckled their seat belts as well.

"How old are you, Gavin?" the doctor asked him. When they had entered and checked in, a nurse said that the head doctor wanted to speak with him alone to see if what he told him would match the description his parents had given him over the phone.
     "Fifteen," Gavin replied, not liking the feeling of the room he was in. It was dark and reminded him of an interrogation room, the only different being he was sitting on a nice velvet couch and the doctor was sitting backwards on a chair facing him, the computer on his desk on and showing a diagram of the brain.
     "Fifteen," the doctor said, nodding. "Got your driving permit yet?" Gavin shook his head. He hadn't even started Drivers Ed yet.
     "How's school?" the doctor asked. "Have any good friends?" Gavin shook his head again. "I don't like school. I have no friends."
     "But your mom said over the phone you had a girlfriend."
     "She broke up with me last week." Gavin didn't want to linger on that much. "Mister...um, doctor--" Gavin didn't know what to call this man.
     "Call me Laramie," the doctor said. "Don't have to be formal with me." He rolled his chair back to his desk and opened a drawer, taking out a notepad and ballpoint pen. He scribbled something down, probably his age, and asked, "Do you like living at home?"
     "Yeah, I guess," Gavin answered honestly. Truth be told, he really did care for his parents, even if they sometimes made him think they made his life hell.
     "You like your parents?"
     "Yeah."
     "Do you have any other relatives?"
     "My grandparents, but I haven't seen them in six years," Gavin explained, glancing at the clock on Laramie's desk. He had barely been in there four minutes.
     "Do you miss them?" Laramie asked, writing that down in the notepad.
     "No," Gavin said honestly. "I don't miss them at all. I hardly even remember them."
     "I see," Laramie said, writing that down as well. He paused, and then continued with the questions, "Your mother said you had a traumatic experience last week?"
     "I almost got hit by a car," he said, recalling the incident. He shivered, remembering the front tire being so close to his face.
     Laramie wrote that down and then stood up from his chair.
     "I'm going to go have a word with your parents," he said. "A nurse named Stella will be in here in a moment to help you get situated with us, alright, champ?"
     "Don't call me that," Gavin said as Laramie exited the office, the door closing almost soundlessly behind him.
     Gavin stood up, not wanting to sit on that couch any longer. He new right away he didn't like this Laramie guy. What kind of a name was that, anyway?
     Gavin's attention was averted to the diagram of the human brain on Laramie's computer. It was a 3D model through a transparent blue human male head. Each lobe of the brain was in a different color. Nothing was labeled, so Gavin had no idea what any of it meant.
     He looked away from the screen and looked at Laramie's degrees on his wall. There was a knock at the door before Gavin could read what they said.
     The door opened, a young and pretty woman walking in. She had blonde hair, tied up, and was wearing teal scrubs with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her eyes were blue and sparkled.
     "Hello, I'm Stella," she said. She smiled warmly at him. "I'm assuming you're Gavin."
     "Yeah," he said, caught off guard by her beauty. He felt his heart begin to ache; she looked very much like Charlotte.
     "It's nice to meet you," she said. "I'll be one of the nurses on your floor." She extended her hand to him. He hesitantly took it and shook her hand. "If you need me for anything, don't be afraid to ask," she continued. "We're all here to help you get better, honey." She released his hand and said, "Follow me, and I'll show you to your floor."
     "What about my parents?" he asked.
     "When Laramie's done talking to them, he'll send them up to say goodbye," she said. Stella turned and started walking out of the room. Gavin followed, his heart beating in harshly in his chest. His paper bags were in his packed bag. His packed bag was with his mother.
     Keep your breathing under control.

The elevator dinged onto floor six. Gavin followed Stella out of it and paused, staring down the corridor. It was a bit wide, with rooms on either side. The walls and ceiling were white, the floor had gray, white, and tan tiles. There were random plants and chairs.
     "What kind of patients are here?" Gavin asked Stella, feeling a bit uneasy as a man with a big black afro, half of it flat on his head, walked by, wheezing and spouting what a gorgeous day it was.
     "We get all sorts of people here," she said. "Some with MPD, others with bad cases of Asperger's Syndrome, and other cases where their minds 'aren't completely there'."
     "So I'm with the mentally insane," Gavin said aloud. Stella shook her head and said, "Don't ever say that. Now, follow me." Gavin continued to follow her. A few feet ahead, a young man who looked about twenty or so came around the corner. He was carrying a pig puppet on his hand.
     "Good morning, Billy," Stella said happily to him. "and good morning Mr. Pig."
     "Good Morning!" Billy said. "Good Morning!" he said again in a high pitched voice, apparently being the pig.
     "This is our new friend Gavin," Stella said, putting her hand on Gavin's shoulder.
     "Nice to meet you, Gavin!" Billy said, holding the puppet in front of Gavin's face. "Mr. Pig just loves meeting new friends!"
     "Nice to meet you, Billy and Mr. Pig," Gavin said, not feeling completely comfortable saying that aloud. Stella, still smiling, said goodbye to Billy and kept walking straight down the hallway. An old woman with pigtails had just walked out of her room and said, "Stella, oh Stella, I don't know where my kid went. Where is that kid, Stella?"
     "Your son left yesterday, Ms. Alaka," Stella said. "He's at home with his wife now."
     "Oh, that's right," Ms. Alaka, said, throwing her hands into the air. "I keep on forgettin' my kid is married and all that."
     "I'm sure he'll come visit you again sometime soon, Ms. Alaka," Stella said. "Have a nice day."
     "You too, Stell," she said. "And that boy there, too." Stella smiled at her and ushered Gavin down the hallway and into an office.
     "Have a seat," Stella said. Gavin did so in one of the gray armchairs.
     "Things will take a few days to get used to," she said. "but that's to be expected. Now, I'll need to take some things from you." She took a big plastic box from a cupboard under the big desk in there and took the lid off.
     "Please hand me your shoes," she said. Gavin just looked at her.
     "We'll be giving you a new pair of shoes and a new outfit to wear," she said. "Didn't you notice all of the patients are wearing the same thing?"
     He hadn't noticed that.
     "Fine," Gavin said, sighing. He unlaced his tennis shoes, took them off, and handed them to Stella, who set them in the plastic box. A perfect fit inside.
     "Now, I need any electronics, watches, keys, things like that," she said. Gavin sighed again and took his iPod, cellphone, and house key out of his pocket. He handed those to Stella, who put them each in their own plastic bag, and then put them in the plastic box.
     "Anything else?" Stella asked.
     "I've got nothing else," he said.
     "Oh, I'll need your belt and socks, too," she said.
     "Are you kidding me?" Gavin asked, starting to get angry.
     "Just give them up, c'mon, Gavin," she said. Gavin clenched his teeth, but decided to let it go. There was no point in arguing with her. He stood up and took off his belt, rolling it up and handing it to her, and then pulled off his socks. She put the belt in the plastic box, stuffed his socks in his shoes, and put a lid back on it. She took a piece of masking tape and wrote Gavin's name on it.
     "What's your last name?" she asked.
     "Marsh," he said. She wrote it down on the tape with a Sharpie marker.
     "Okay, we're all done in here," she said, capping the marker and setting it on the desk. She put the plastic box back in the cupboard under the desk where she got it and stood up, going to a closet. She opened it up, pulled grey clothes out of it, and told Gavin to stand up. He did.
     She took the shirt and held it in front of him, seeing how it would fit on him, and figured it would. She did the same with the pants, and they looked like they would fit as well. She asked him his shoe size. She got a pair of slippers from the closet that were that size and told him to slip his feet into them. She folded up his new clothes and handed them to Gavin and once again told him to follow her. He did, feeling a slight headache starting just above his left eyebrow.
     "Time to show you your room and your roommate," she said. After exiting the office, Gavin followed Stella straight down the hallway, where more patients were wandering the halls, each, he noticed, wearing the same grey outfit with the same grey slippers. Along the way to his room, Stella pointed out various rooms where he could spend some recreational time. A library, arts and crafts, a music room, a room with a small TV playing some PBS program, and a small cafeteria. She pointed out various offices they walked past, saying what each one was for. There was a therapeutic office, an infirmary, a counselor's office, and an empty room where someone went who--as Stella put it--was very angry and needed time to be alone and away from other people.
     And then they went back down another hallway full of rooms for patients. About four doors down and to their left, Stella stopped and knocked on a door, saying, "Carla, honey, are you in there?" They waited a few moments, and then the door slid open a bit.
     "I brought your new roommate," Stella said, smiling. "Let's give him a warm welcome, Carla. Can you open the door all the way and let him in?"
     The door slid open all the way and standing in the doorway was a little girl holding an old-looking stuffed horse. Her black hair was long and a little messy. Her eyes were dark but bright at the same time. Her skin was pale, and she was looking up at Gavin in wonder.
     "Carla, this is Gavin," Stella said. "He's going to be living here for a little while."
     Carla continued to look up at him.
     "You can come in," she said, quietly. "but you have to keep your noise down, you'll wake them up."
     Before he could question what she meant, she took his hand and pulled him into the room.
     It was a bit spacious with two beds. There was even a bathroom by the entrance to the room. The walls and floor were the same color as in the hallway. Each bed had white sheets and one flat pillow. The bed closest to the opposite wall by the small window was messy with the sheets rolled up at the bottom. Gavin guessed that was Carla's bed. Between the two beds was a tall lamp, and next to each bed was a grey nightstand with one drawer. On the wall across from the beds was a wall clock that didn't tick. Next to the clock was a wall speaker.
     "What's the speaker for?" Gavin asked. Carla quickly 'shushed' Gavin for talking too loud, and Stella answered quietly, "Most of the clocks here don't work, so just to keep everyone on schedule, we do announcements over the speaker there for wake up time, curfew, activity transition, lunch, medication time, et cetera."
     "Medication time?"
     "You don't need to, but some other patients do," she said. "Oh, and before I forget..." She walked over to the nightstand by Gavin's bed and opened the drawer, taking out a piece of paper. She brought it back over to him and said, "This is your schedule. It's almost the same as Carla's, so she's going to help you out for your first few days here, okay?"
     "Um, alright," Gavin said, looking at the schedule. "When will I start this?"
     "Once you get settled in," she said. "Come to me or anyone else on this floor if you have any questions, alright, Gavin?"
     He nodded, starting to feel a little overwhelmed. "Where are my parents?" he asked, feeling his voice crack. For some reason, he wanted to start crying.

"Goodbye, Gavin," Cheryl said, hugging her son one last time. Laramie had brought his parents up to the floor to say goodbye. He couldn't keep his bag considering he didn't need anything from it but his paper bags. His mother kept one hand firmly gripped on the strap.
     "Good luck, son," was all Harold said. Gavin just nodded.
     "We'll visit you every week," Cheryl promised. "and we'll make sure your teachers know where you are so we can send you some homework."
     "I'm not going to understand the homework, don't even bother," Gavin said, his statement sounding colder than he really meant it to. His mother now had both hands on the strap of his bag.
     "We'll think of something," Harold said. "You just try to take it easy and get the help you need up here, okay?"
     "Okay," Gavin said. "Um, mom, dad..." He paused. His parents looked at him.
     Gavin sighed and continued. "Guys, I know I don't say this a lot, but... I love you. I know you try. So...thanks."
     Cheryl sobbed, dropping Gavin's bag and hugging him fiercely. Gavin hugged his mother back, getting ready to face the fact that they were going to go away and not come back for a whole week. He had never been that far apart from his parents before. He actually had a bit of separation anxiety left over from when he was a little kid.
     Cheryl eventually let go. Gavin looked at his father. He extended a hand to him. Harold smiled and shook his son's hand.
     "Gonna miss you, Gav," he said. "Be strong in here."
     "I will, sir," Gavin said. "Promise."

Author's Note

Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm happy about how this turned out. :3

Reviews

[Alexis]

LARAMIE. THAT MADE ME THINK OF BAND LOL. I'm not making fun of your character, no. That's just what it made me think of. :3

What an emotional chapter. I can only imagine how I'd act if I were placed in such a position... To be quite honest, I'd probably hate Stella and Laramie. There's just something that bugs me when people try to be nice to make you feel better when really it's part of their job or they just have to do it. I'm also very stubborn and wouldn't have willingly given Stella my possessions without being rude or smart about it. :/

^ None of that was meant to be taken as things I didn't like about your book, just so you know. :)

The music you chose for this fit really good. I like it. :3

I like how when Gavin and Stella were walking down the hallway, you had them encounter some patients. It makes it seem much more real than just quiet, empty hallways.

I felt absolutely horrible for Gavin when he was talking to Laramie about everything. It really hit me hard when he was talking about how he doesn't have any friends and that his girlfriend broke up with him. It's that whole "being alone" idea that makes me sad.

I got a tight stomach and actually started crying a little when Gavin was saying goodbye to his parents. Ever since I was little, I never liked leaving my parents. Whenever my mom would drop me off at daycare or something, I would stand in the doorway and hold onto her really tight. The lady I would stay with sometimes had to trick me into letting go with something fun or cool. I also remember when my mom would drop me and my sister off at a daycare that was connected to the dance studio I went to, I would sit under a part of the play area or sit in the dark "movie theater" and not say a word, waiting for her to come back.
Meh, I'm ranting. You probably don't really care lol.

Anywho, great chapter, my little Clementine. I'm really liking this so far.
On to the next chapter when you publish it! --->

[M Garcia]

Great chapter. I am looking forward to finding out the process of heading towards a lobotomy.

[Anonymous]

Nurse STELLA? I see what you did there! XD

Anyway, awesome chapter! I really am looking forward to seeing how Gavin's character matures as the story progresses. Now that he's in the hospital, we can unfold his mental struggles. We'll see what he's really feeling and how it will change in his time at the hospital. I'm excited!

_Cloud